Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope

JMIR Public Health & Surveillance (JPH) is a sister journal of the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), the top cited journal in health informatics (Impact Factor 2016: 5.175). JPH is a multidisciplinary journal that focuses on innovation and technology in public health, and includes topics like public health informatics, surveillance, infodemiology and infoveillance, digital public health interventions, participatory epidemiology, and emerging population health analysis systems and tools. We publish regular articles, reviews and viewpoint papers on all aspects of public health, with a focus on innovation and technology in public health. As one of the novel features we plan to publish rapid surveillance reports and open data. The methods and description of the surveillance system will be peer-reviewed and published only once in detail (in a JMIR Res Protoc or a JMIR Public Health & Surveill paper), and authors then have the possibility to publish data and reports in frequent intervals rapidly and with only minimal additional peer-review (Surveillance Reports). The publisher may even work with selected surveillance systems on APIs for semi-automated reports (e.g. weekly reports to be published in JPH, based on data-feeds from surveillance systems and minmal narratives and abstracts). We also publish descriptions of open data resources and open source software. Where possible, we can host the actual software or dataset on the journal website. The journal is indexed in PubMed Central and PubMed.

Section Policies

Guest Editorial JPHS

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

General Articles on Innovation and Technology in Public Health

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Viewpoint and Opinions on Technology and Innovation in Public Health

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Reviews on Public Health Technology and Innovation

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Equity and Digital Divide

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Surveillance Reports

These are primarily data from an existing surveillance system. If a system description has been published previously in JMIR Public Health Surveill or JMIR Res Protoc, then the report does not have to be peer-reviewed again. The methods section must cite the original system description.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Surveillance Systems

Development and description of surveillance systems

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Public Health Informatics

Development and evaluation of public health informatics systems

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Prevention and Health Promotion

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Infoveillance, Infodemiology and Digital Disease Surveillance

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Mass Media/Social Media Communication and Campaigns

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

HIV/AIDS/STI Prevention and Care

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Behavioural Surveillance for Public Health

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Protocols and Methods for Public Health Research and Surveillance

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Pharmacovigilance

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Cross-Sectional Studies in Public Health

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Longitudinal and Cohort Studies in Public Health

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Applications in Public Health

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Environmental Health

Environmental health is the branch of public health that is concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment that may affect human health. This includes issues of air pollution, global warming, housing, food safety, toxins in the environment, waste managements etc. JMIR Public Health focuses on technology solutions to improve, visualize, or monitor the environment for public health purposes.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Obesity and Nutrition as Public Health Problem

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Participatory Epidemiology and Surveillance

Participatory epidemiology is an emerging field that is based on the use of participatory techniques for the harvesting of qualitative and quantitative epidemiological intelligence contained within community observations and/or consumer/patient data entries.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Health Care Quality

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Instruments and Questionnaires for Physical Activity and Lifestyle

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Rapid Surveillance Report

We support rapid open data sharing and rapid open access to surveillance and outbreak data. As one of the novel features we publish rapid or even real-time surveillance reports and open data. The methods and description of the surveillance system may be peer-reviewed and published only once in detail, in a "baseline report" (in a JMIR Res Protoc or a JMIR Public Health & Surveill paper), and authors then have the possibility to publish data and reports in frequent intervals rapidly and with only minimal additional peer-review (we call this article type "Rapid Surveillance Reports").
Furthermore, during epidemics and public health emergencies, submissions with critical data will be processed with expedited peer-review to enable publication within days or even in real-time.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Instruments and Questionnaires for Nutrition and Food Intake

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Descriptive Epidemiology and Population Size Estimates

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Health Services in Resource-Poor Settings and LMICs

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Notes from the Field

Some more subjective reports and "case studies" from public health organizations or individuals, with a focus on technology in Public Health.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Discretionary Corrigenda

For corrigenda that are discretionary and a result of author-oversight (e.g. corrections in the affiliation etc) we charge a $190 processing fee to make changes in the original paper and publish an erratum.
To request a correction, please submit a correction statement (text similar to http://www.jmir.org/2015/3/e76/) as new submission from your author homepage.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Corrigenda and Addenda

Authors can publish corrigenda and addenda. While we publish true errata for free, authors can also submit "discretionary corrigenda and addenda", for example adding new information to published articles, for which we charge $190.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Connected Health Symposium 2016

20% discount on the APF for presenters at the Boston Connected Health conference

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Theme Issue 2017: Improving Global and National Responses to the HIV Epidemic Through High Quality HIV Surveillance Data

Open Source and Data for Public Health

Descriptions of open data resources and open source software. Where possible, we can and want to publish or even host the actual software or dataset on the journal website.

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

LGBTQ Issues

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Statistical Methods for Surveillance and Population Health

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Letter to the Editor

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Peer Review Process

When we receive a manuscript, the Managing Editor and/or Assistant Editor and/or the Section Editor will first decide whether the manuscript meets the formal criteria specified in the Instructions for Authors and whether it fits within the scope of the journal. When in doubt, the editor will consult other members of the Editorial Board. Manuscripts are then assigned to a section editor, who sends it to 2-4 external experts for peer review. Authors are required to suggest at least 2 peer-reviewers (who do not have an conflict of interest) during the submission process. JMIR reviewers will not stay anonymous their names will be revealed and stated below the article in the event that the manuscript will be published. Authors and reviewers should not directly contact each other to enter into disputes on manuscripts or reviews.

We acknowledge the need of our authors to communicate their findings rapidly. We therefore aim to be extremely fast (but still thorough and rigorous) in our peer-review process.

Publication Frequency

JMIR Public Health & Surveillance (JPH) publishes articles rapidly and "continuously," i.e. articles are published online as soon as they are available (peer-reviewed and copy-edited).

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge and accelerates research.Copyright is retained by the authors and articles can be freely used and distributed by others. Articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published by JMIR Publications, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information (authors, title, journal, volume/issue, articleID), a link to the original publication (URL), as well as this copyright and license information ("Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution cc-by 2.0") must be included.

Archiving

JPH uses LOCKSS and will also be archived in Pubmed Central (application pending). The LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system ensures a secure and permanent archive for the journal. LOCKSS is open source software developed at Stanford University Library that enables libraries to preserve selected web journals by regularly polling registered journal websites for newly published content and archiving it. Each archive is continually validated against other library caches, and if content is found to be corrupted or lost, the other caches or the journal is used to restore it.

Fee Schedule

Please note that an optional fast track fee is available for all journals for $450 USD.

Since Nov 2014, JMIR Research Protocols no longer charges a submission fee - papers can currently be submitted free of charge.
In case of acceptance, an Article Processing Fee (APF) will be charged to cover peer-review, copyediting and typesetting costs:

$950: For protocols and grant proposals, if existing grant agency peer-review reports are provided (as Multimedia Appendix or supplementary file for reviewers/editors) which are of sufficient quality so that the manuscript does not have to be reviewed in detail externally (in submission step 1, choose a submission section which says "already funded")

JMIR mHealth and uHealth does not charge any submission fee, but there is an Article Processing Fee (APF) in case of acceptance (see Fee Schedule), to cover the costs for professional copyediting, typesetting, and deposit in various databases (PubMed Central, PubMed etc.). Note that in 2017 we increased the price for submissions after Feb 5th, 2017 to account for the fact that JMIR mHealth has been ranked with a very solid impact factor in 2017. Submissions before that date (including those that were submitted to other jMIR journals but subsequently transferred) are not affected from this price increase.

There is no submission fee. For papers accepted after March 1st, 2015, JMIR Mental Health charges an Article Processing Fee of US $1500 in case of acceptance (papers submitted to JMH before March 1st 2015 are exempt).

There is currently no Submission fee. There is an optional fast-track fee of US$450 if the author requires a decision within 3 weeks.
Since 2015, as the journal is now PubMed-indexed, there is an Article Processing Fee of US$1500 payable only in case of acceptance, to cover copyediting and publishing costs.

We currently charge no submission fee, but submission is only open to authors and works presented at the Medicine 2.0 congress (http://www.medicine20congress.org).
There is no Article Processing Fee for papers submitted, starting 2013. If authors opt to have their manuscript copyedited by a professional copyeditor (this is the default and highly recommended!), a charge of $450 will be billed (up to 20 manuscript pages).

There is currently no Submission fee. There is an optional fast-track fee of US$450 if the author requires a decision within 3 weeks.
As an introductory offer, there is no APF for articles submitted before 30 September 2017.

Grant-funded research as well as research from institutions which have an institutional open access fund or other means of funding are subject to an Article Processing fee of $1500, payable in case of acceptance. All other papers (including non-funded papers by patients etc) are published free of charge.

There is currently no Submission fee. There is an optional fast-track fee of US$450 if the author requires a decision within 3 weeks. There is an Article Processing Fee of US$1500 in case of acceptance.

There is currently no Submission or Article Processing fee for this journal. After peer-review, the author can decide whether he wants to publish the paper in a partner journal (provided that the editor offers publication), which may or may not have its own Article Processing Fees, or can "publish" it on JMIR Preprints, which involves assignment of a DOI, and requires a nominal fee of $50.

There is currently no Submission or Article Processing fee for this journal.

1For submissions in JMIR before Jul 29, 2015, the price of the Article Processing Fee (APF) is US$ 1900

2For submissions in JMU before Jun 01, 2015, the price of the Article Processing Fee (APF) is US$ 1500For submissions in JMU between Jun 01, 2015 and Feb 05, 2017, the price of the Article Processing Fee (APF) is US$ 1900

3For submissions in JPH before Jun 01, 2015, there is no Article Processing Fee (APF)For submissions in JPH between Jun 01, 2015 and Feb 06, 2017, the price of the Article Processing Fee (APF) is US$ 1500

4For submissions in JMH before Mar 01, 2015, there is no Article Processing Fee (APF)For submissions in JMH between Mar 01, 2015 and Feb 05, 2017, the price of the Article Processing Fee (APF) is US$ 1500

5For submissions in JHF before Jun 01, 2015, there is no Article Processing Fee (APF)

6For submissions in JME before Sep 24, 2015, there is no Article Processing Fee (APF)

7For submissions in JC before Oct 15, 2015, there is no Article Processing Fee (APF)

8For submissions in JRAT before Oct 23, 2015, there is no Article Processing Fee (APF)

9For submissions in JD before May 15, 2017, there is no Article Processing Fee (APF)

10For submissions in JCARD on and after Sep 30, 2017, the price of the Article Processing Fee (APF) will change to US$ 1500

*Introductory offer

**Article Processing Fees (APFs) are only charged in case of acceptance, at the time of acceptance. In case of price increases, the submission date determines the price of the APF

JMIR Public Health & Surveillance currently charges no submission fee, and for submissions before June 1st, 2014 there is no Article Processing fee. For submissions after June 1st, 2015 there is a Article Processing Fee of $1500 or $1750 (after Feb 6th, 2017) for full papers, and $500 for rapid surveillance reports payable only in case of acceptance.

About JMIR Publications

Vision

JMIR Publications is the leading ehealth publisher, advancing progress in the health, engineering and social sciences to ultimately help people to live happier and healthier lives using technology.

Mission Statement

JMIR Publications helps innovators in the health technology space to collaborate and to disseminate their innovations, ideas, and research results to the widest possible audience, in a timely manner, adding value to the quality of the work and adhering to the highest ethical and quality standards.

We achieve this by using the Internet and the latest available technologies as well as by producing conferences and social media, and other innovative knowledge translation products. We also innovate in the scholarly communication space itself, experimenting with new business models, new models of peer-review and dissemination, and new technologies.

History

JMIR Publicationsis a rapidly growing innovative academic publisher. It builds on the success of JMIR (Journal of Medical Internet Research), which started in 1998 as a pioneering, small independent open access project hosted at a university, which subsequently grew into the most influential journal in medical informatics (ranked in Q1 by Impact Factor by Thomson Reuters as well as Scimago) and e-health services research. Due to the growth in influence and submissions, and to make the operations more sustainable and professional, the journal was incorporated as company in 2011. Shortly after incorporation, several spin-off journals were launched. Currently, JMIR Publications Inc. publishes over 1000 articles annually in over 20 journals - see Which journals is JMIR Publications currently publishing? for details.

Editorial Board Policy

Purpose: The Editorial Board is a group of outstanding individuals committed to helping JMIR to produce an excellent multidisciplinary scientific publication of the highest quality Selection criteria for EB members: Editorial Board members are appointed by the publisher (or, if one exists, Editor-in-Chief) for a 3-year-term that is renewable. Editorial Board members should have reviewed for JMIR and should have published at least one article in JMIR. Editorial Board members should not sit on editorial boards of competing journals during their term, but exceptions are possible. Nominations for Editorial Board appointments come from a variety of sources including self-nominations, the current Editorial Board, journal authors, and readers. The editorial board should constitute an appropriate interdisciplinary mix from a wide range of disciplines, including health care researchers, researchers from the engineering sciences, social sciences, and even patient representatives. EB members should be productive and respected members of the scientific community. In addition, JMIR is actively looking for consumer presentation on its board. Being an editorial board member for JMIR means that actual work is required, so EB members should have appropriate time and motivation. Main responsibilities• General advocacy for open access publishing in general and publishing high-quality work in JMIR specifically • Strategic and operational advice (unsolicited, as well as in editorial board meetings) • Guiding papers in their area of expertise through the peer-review process. Individuals interested in joining the Editorial Board should read the FAQ Article How to become an EB member.

As a service for our authors we now offer the possibility to have a submission considered in partner journals, which means that the manuscript and peer-review reports may be transferred to a JMIR sister/partner journal, if the paper is not found suitable for publication in JMIR, but is publishable in another journal. These journals include e.g. i-JMR, JMIR Res Protoc, JMIR mHealth and uHealth, JMIR Medical Informatics, JMIR Human Factors, JMIR Mental Health, JMIR Public Health, JMIR Cancer, Medicine 2.0 and others. The submission fee for that partner journal (if any) will be waived, and transfer of the peer-review reports may mean that the paper does not have to be re-reviewed. Authors will receive a notification when the manuscript is rejected for J Med Internet Res and transferred, and at that time can decide if they want to pursue publication in a sister/partner journal. If authors do NOT wish an automatic transfer to an alternative journal after rejection for JMIR, this should be noted in the cover letter.

Policies on Conflict of Interest, Human and Animal rights, and Informed Consent

JMIR Publications is a member of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). The entire publication process from submission, review, to publication, adheres to the COPE guidelines.

A Conflict of Interest section should be provided, and either read "None declared", or disclose any financial and non-financial interests of any co-author in the publication. This includes any ownership or interest in the application evaluated or discussed. For papers which evaluate a specific ehealth intervention it should also be made clear if the evaluators are also the developers or creators of the intervention.

If human subjects or animals were involved, a section on IRB approval (or exemption) must be provided in the methods. For research coming from industry (without academic partners) it is advisable to have an independent ethics board from within the company discussing, approving and guiding the work.

Consistent with best practices in research, informed consent and the ability of participants to opt out should usually be provided. However, for certain types of research, informed consent cannot be obtained (e.g. analyses of Twitter postings, A/B testing of websites etc). In these cases, the investigator should comment on the criteria proposed by Eysenbach & Till (BMJ 2001) and obtain IRB approval, which is often particularly important for research with mental health e-communities.